Chapter 278: Toast In Progress
In the courtyard.
After watching Xiang Chuan wolf down the round bread in her hand, which was slightly one or two sizes larger than a steamed bun, until it was completely gone, Ouyang Yating and the other two also put on heat-resistant gloves one after another and picked up the round bread from the serving plates.
The first thing the three did after picking up the round bread was to examine it repeatedly.
It wasn’t that they were curious about the appearance, but because Xiang Chuan had failed too many times before. Although there were external factors like the fuel’s penetrability, after seeing so many black, lumpy, and rock-hard breads, whether the bread in their hands now had truly avoided the carbonized outcome remained to be verified.
Fortunately, the round bread in the three’s hands at least looked passable on the outside.
Ouyang Yating didn’t tear the bread open like Xiang Chuan had; instead, she took a small bite directly from the edge.
In the instant she bit down, the crispy, fragrant crust seemed to burst between her lips and teeth, while she also tasted the fluffy inner crumb.
In half an hour of roasting, most of the internal moisture had evaporated, but before the freshly baked bread was processed, some steam still remained inside. This was one of the main reasons for the fresh bread’s outer crunch and inner softness.
The wheat fragrance mixed with the faint sweetness emitted after the starch was fully cooked spread gradually in her mouth with each chew, and she could also taste the fluffy elasticity of the dough after fermentation and roasting, which was different from buns and steamed buns.
This one bite directly awakened Ouyang Yating’s appetite. When she took the second bite, her chewing speed was noticeably faster. Beside her, Ainuo and Liang Gong had already wolfed down more than half of their round bread.
The domineering aroma that erupted when the brick stove was opened—overwhelming to modern people—combined with the sounds made by the four A Bite of China Club members gnawing on palm-sized bread with its crispy crust, made it hard for the Class Eight Gluttons not to notice the situation here.
The sharp-eyed ones noticed the snow-white inner crumb and rising steam when Xiang Chuan tore open her bread, causing a chorus of gulping sounds. Some of the more proactive ones even put down their work and ran over directly, hoping to mooch a bite.
For example, the Cultural Committee Member Mandy and the Labor Committee Member Fu Chengkai, these two action-oriented ones.
They latched onto Ainuo first.
“Ainuo, hey, brother, share a bite with us.”
“That piece left in your hand… even tearing half for us to taste would be fine!”
Ainuo looked left and right at these two class cadres sandwiching him, stayed silent for a second, then decisively shoved the palm-sized bread left in his hand straight into his mouth.
“Ah——!!” “Don’t do it, brother——!!”
Mandy and Fu Chengkai let out wails in unison, but Ainuo ignored them completely.
Ainuo: There’s only this much bread. Want to snatch it? Heh.
It wasn’t that Ainuo was being so ruthless this time; Xiang Chuan had only trial-made four round breads, and compared to the 21st century’s basin-sized giant breads, they weren’t big either, so there wasn’t enough for Class Eight Grade One to taste.
But the two didn’t give up; instead, they turned their pleas to Xiang Chuan.
“Xiang Chuan! Lady Xiang Chuan! Empress Xiang Chuan! Make a few more! We want to taste it too!”
“Yeah, yeah! We can provide some tasting data for your reference! I remember you’re using this bread as the research subject for Outdoor Study this time! We can help! Lady Xiang Chuan!”
Xiang Chuan: …Calling me “lady” so smoothly with every bite. Watched too much Empresses in the Palace?
However, Xiang Chuan naturally had no intention of finishing these four round breads and then extinguishing the brick stove after finally switching to new fuel.
“Then you two come help out, and we’ll make some more of other kinds.”
With that, Xiang Chuan took out a large box of materials from the insulated cabinet that Da Xing had moved over from the side.
——
This time, Xiang Chuan planned to make toast bread.
Originally, after switching fuel earlier, Xiang Chuan had already intended to try making a toast to taste, but considering that the ingredient proportions were much more complex than for round bread or baguette, she ultimately chose round bread as the trial product.
But now that the fuel issue was resolved, she could go all out.
The prepared ingredients were flour, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, yeast, and whipped cream.
This morning while preparing materials, Xiang Chuan had a headache looking at the toast recipes on Geegle. Almost all toast recipes required butter, since it was key to keeping the toast fluffy and sweet inside.
But she had just impulsively decided to make toast—where was she supposed to get butter prepared in advance?
Luckily, she discovered that whipped cream could substitute. Whipped cream comes from whole milk; after whole milk sits still under refrigeration for over twelve hours, a layer of pale yellow milk skin floats to the surface, and that’s whipped cream.
There was plenty of milk chilling in the home warehouse; she had the kitchen AI help scour some, barely managing to collect a glass bottle’s worth.
Making one jin of toast required only about 100 grams of whipped cream, but even so, the four A Bite of China Club members plus the two class cadres used nearly half a bottle.
Xiang Chuan planned to use the remaining half to try making some butter to store. She mused that if her baking technology was accepted by modern people, then after summer vacation ended, she’d probably have to drag her club members to compile data on milk food processing.
While directing the five to mix and knead the dough, she pondered how many people to pull in to help compile this information later.
Six loaves of toast, made into sandwiches or such, could almost reach one per person. So wouldn’t it be perfectly reasonable to tie the whole class over to pay labor fees?
Xiang Chuan chuckled to herself inwardly.
Making toast was more complex than traditional round bread or baguette; just for that glove film that every 21st century baking UP main could pull off, the dough with fused ingredients and seasonings needed to rest for twenty minutes.
So at this point, the six simply started chatting. It was called chatting, but mostly the two class cadres were prying in detail about the bread’s taste.
Xiang Chuan, this vocabulary-poor liberal arts student, racked her brains for a long time and could only come up with “very traditional bread flavor,” which got her temporarily blocked by Mandy and Fu Chengkai.
Ouyang Yating: “Very fragrant, very soft. The inside is different from steamed buns—drier, with more air. It doesn’t feel as filling, but the aroma is enticing, so it’s not like steamed buns without milk where you lose appetite after one or two.”
Liang Gong: “If made bigger, I think it could serve as another kind of staple food. I remember Xiang Chuan often dips steamed buns in noodle soup or dough drops. This drier-tasting bread with even larger internal voids would pair great with soup.”
Ainuo: “But that assumes the bread itself isn’t too seasoned. This one Xiang Chuan made has both sugar and salt… Not great for dipping in soup, right?”
Xiang Chuan, who was checking if the six’s dough could successfully pull a glove film: “…Once this toast is done later, don’t fight over it to eat.”
Joke’s on you—toast can be salty or sweet, on par with baguette and round bread as the 21st century corporate slave’s top choice for simple Western pastries. Just dipping in soup? Wait till I serve creamy soup later—what then, sir?
